Envelope with crossed pens and laurel hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 6 colors · 4 kinds of stitch

Envelope with crossed pens and laurel: preview of the stitched design

An envelope with a heart seal lies over two crossed pens in a laurel tied with a bow. The envelope outline and the folds of the envelope are navy stem stitch, the flap is a V of blue chain stitch and the seal is a red satin stitch heart at the point of the flap. The pens cross behind the envelope with their gold nibs up; their grips, barrels and ends are navy and their bands gold, all satin stitch. Two dark green stem stitch stems curve up from the red bow, each satin stitch leaf half dark green and half light green. The bow and bow tails are satin stitch, the bow knot padded satin stitch.

Size and details

Easy. In a hoop of 6 inches or less: short satin stitches, no shading, with a little padded satin stitch; in a larger hoop the widest satin stitches are long.

6 colors of floss and 4 kinds of stitch:

The stitched size and the widest satin stitch, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters	Satin stitch up to
3 in (8 cm)	1.6 × 1.7 in	4.1 × 4.3 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.3 × 2.5 in	5.8 × 6.4 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.1 × 3.4 in	7.9 × 8.6 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	3.9 × 4.2 in	9.9 × 10.7 cm	5/16 in (8 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	5.4 × 5.9 in	13.7 × 15 cm	7/16 in (11 mm)

The pattern is drawn inside a circle about half an inch (1.3 cm) smaller all around than the hoop.

What you need

DMC 986 Very Dark Forest GreenStems and darker half of each leaf
DMC 320 Medium Pistachio GreenLighter half of each leaf
DMC 304 Medium RedBow, bow tails, bow knot and seal of the envelope
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawNibs of the pens and bands of the pens
DMC 336 Navy BlueGrips of the pens, barrels of the pens, ends of the pens, envelope outline and folds of the envelope
DMC 3755 Baby BlueFlap of the envelope

The floss is six-strand cotton; the stitch guide says how many strands to use. You also need a hoop, an embroidery needle (a size 7 to 9 suits two or three strands) and plain cotton or linen fabric. To frame the piece in its hoop, cut a square 3 inches (8 cm) wider than the hoop: a 9 inch (23 cm) square for a 6 inch hoop.

Stitch guide

Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsStems, envelope outline, folds of the envelope
Satin stitch 2 strandsLeaves (each half slanted to the center vein, in its own color), bow, bow tails, nibs of the pens, grips of the pens, barrels of the pens, ends of the pens, bands of the pens, seal of the envelope
Padded satin stitch 2 strandsBow knot
Chain stitch 2 or 3 strandsFlap of the envelope

Getting it onto your fabric

The PDF holds the pattern twice at actual size: once as drawn, and once mirrored for an iron-on transfer pen. Print it at 100% with scaling off and check the one-inch square (25.4 mm) with a ruler before you trace. How to transfer a pattern explains tracing, carbon paper and the other ways. The files are under Downloads.